COMMUNITY MEDIATION CENTRE

COMMUNITY MEDIATION CENTRE: * * *

10.

Dr Fatimah Lateef asked the Minister for Law (a) what is the number of cases referred to the Community Mediation Centre annually for the last two years; (b) what is the breakdown for the common cases referred; and (c) how many were successfully mediated and how many proceeded with legal course of action following the mediation.

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Mr Shanmugam: (a) What is the number of cases referred to the Community Mediation Centre annually for the last two years?

In 2007, 1,488 cases were registered for mediation at the Community Mediation Centre (CMC). In 2008, this figure increased by approximately 10% to 1,641. Ninety-one percent of these cases were channelled to the CMC through referrals by frontline public agencies such as the Housing and Development Board, the Police, the Courts and through Members of Parliament.

(b) What is the breakdown for the common cases referred?

A majority of the cases handled by the CMC in 2007 and 2008 involved disputes between neighbours, which formed approximately 54% of CMC’s total caseload for the two years. Approximately 22% of the disputes involved conflicts between family members (13%) and disputes between acquaintances (9%), typically pertaining to relational and monetary matters. The remaining 24% involved relational conflicts involving mainly landlords and tenants, and disputes between hawkers and between colleagues.

(c) How many were successfully mediated and how many proceeded with legal course of action following the mediation?

A total of 539 and 684 or about 39% of all registered cases in 2007 and 2008 proceeded to mediation * . Of those cases that were mediated, about three in four cases were successfully resolved through the signing of a settlement agreement.

As parties who choose to bring their disputes to the Court would usually approach the Courts directly, the CMC does not have exact statistics relating to the number of mediated cases that proceeded with legal action. However, based on CMC’s records, the recidivism rate for CMC mediated settlements, where parties seek to re-open the mediation process to further negotiate or work through the terms of the settlement, is fairly low, at approximately 2%. In this regard, parties who are unhappy with their mediated settlements are strongly encouraged to meet for a further mediation session at the CMC to work through their differences, before considering further courses of action.

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• As the nature of mediation is voluntary (except for those cases which are compulsorily referred by a Magistrate under Section 15 of the CMC Act), the CMC can only facilitate a mediation session upon obtaining the consent from all parties to the dispute. The respondent(s) may turn down/fail to respond to the CMC’s invitation to attend a mediation session for various personal reasons. In such cases (and after active persuasion where appropriate), the CMC would respect the parties’ wishes and would not arrange for a mediation session.

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